Hawaiian Electric Asks Big Island Customers to Conserve Power

Hawaiian Electric customers on the Big Island are being asked by the utility company to conserve electricity from 5-9 p.m. each night this week.

The need to conserve is prompted by the unavailability of Hāmākua Energy Partners, the island’s largest independent power producer. Hāmākua Energy Partners, an independent power producer, normally supplies 60 megawatts of power to the Hawaiian Electric grid, but is currently unavailable. It is not known when the Hāmākua Energy Partners units will be returned to service.

Hawaiian Electric’s Hill Plant Unit No. 5 also is undergoing annual scheduled maintenance. It normally supplies 14 megawatts of power. In addition, wind resources are also forecast to be low.

Hawaiian Electric expects to have enough generating capacity to meet the early evening peak demand. Energy conservation by the public can help ensure sufficient power is available to meet demand, which increases in the early evening.

Suggested conservation steps include turning off or reducing use of lights and air conditioners, delaying showers, laundry and dishwashing activities and going out for dinner or minimizing cooking until later in the evening.

Hawaiian Electric is also:

• Asking large commercial customers such as hotels and resorts to voluntarily reduce energy use, especially heavy equipment and air conditioning.
• Accelerating repair and maintenance on its own units.
• Running units longer and on different schedules than usual to ensure the availability of sufficient power generation.
• Requesting maximum output available from Puna Geothermal Venture.

By reducing demand, Hawaiian Electric can ensure enough electricity is available and prevent the need to initiate rolling, 30-minute outages. If rolling outages are necessary, the utility company will make every effort to use social media to notify customers in the affected areas in advance.

Follow @HIElectricLight on Twitter for updates.